WILLIAM BRAMWELL:
THE lAsT OF THE ANCIENT
METHODISTS
CHARLES GOODWIN
On Monday, September 20, 1853, Thomas Collins, who was stationed in
Bradford, took his two daughters, "Emmy and Maria to Westgate Hill, to Bramwell's
grave. The spot where rest the remains of that man of prayer is truly lovely."'
Twenty-two years earlier when he had begun his ministry as a Wesleyan minister at
Wark, Northumberland, his father had exhorted him, "Serve Bramwell's God as
Bramwell served him, and he will be with thee as he was with him."' No such veneration is paid to Bramwell's memory today. John Kent does not see fit to mention
him in his essay on "Wesleyan Methodist to 1849" in the second volume of "A
History of the Methodist Church in Great Britain;" and W.R. Ward describes him, in
what Michael Watts calls a "ludicrous understatement,"' as "a Methodist preacher
with aspirations to be a revivalist."• This of a man who so revived the work of God
in every circuit on which he served that in thirty-three years of active ministry at
least 4,850 new members were added to the Wesleyan Methodist connexion.'
This modem neglect of Bramwell may be due to his being the last great heir to a
type of Methodism which was gradually disowned by the Wesleyan connexion in
the five years following the death of John Wesley. A type of Methodism referred to
by Wesley as "ancient Methodism." This ancient Methodism, according to John
Wesley, was founded upon the principle of itinerant preachers. In 1789 Wesley
warned the Methodist people that "if itinerancy is interrupted" then Methodism "will
speedily come to nothing." 6 The concept of "ancient Methodism" was intended by
Wesley to define the nature of Methodism as a revival movement within the
Church of England. The practice of itinerant preaching within the Church of
England went back, claimed Wesley, to the sixteenth century 'Twelve were appointed by Queen Elizabeth to travel continually, in order to spread true religion through
the kingdom."' The concept of ancient Methodism also served to distinguish
Charles Goodwin is a retired British Methodist minister.
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Methodism from Dissent. Although Dissent had its own tradition of itinerating preachers,
dissenting chapels were founded upon the principle of each congregation having its own
minister. Methodism's system of itinerant preachers traveling a circuit of widely dispersed
societies was designed to prevent the preachers from becoming too closely associated
with any one particular society. And so Wesley could exhort his preachers, "It is not your
business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that Society, but to save as
many souls as you can: to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance.'""
From this point of view Methodism could be legitimately regarded as "a great agency for
the converting of the souls of men."
William Bramwell was an "Ancient Methodist" in the sense that he believed in an itinerant ministry traveling large circuits committed to the task of converting sinners. This was
what he called "the old centre" of Methodism. Between I 791 and 1795 Methodism was
torn apart by bitter disputes over its future identity. One party wanted to preserve
Methodism as a revival movement in its own right with an ordained ministry endowed
with the authority to administer the sacraments. This dispute was settled in I 795 with the
"Plan of Pacification" which forbade Methodist preachers to be ordained, but did allow
Methodist services to be held at the same hours as those in the Church of England, and
allowed Methodist preachers to administer the sacraments in those chapels were the
majority of members were in favor of the practice.9
Bramwell was not happy with the conflict or with the terms of its resolution. The
whole episode had been a "labouring for forced unity and external peace," a "debating on
forms and shadows," which had distracted the Methodist preachers from "that active vital
holiness, that lamenting love, which first actuated the first Methodist preachers: "to seek
first the 'enlarging of the Redeemer's kingdom" through the conversion of the souls of
men."'° Bramwell continued throughout his ministry to lament the way in which the rich
and mighty Wesleyans "too frequently usurp improper authority, which damps too much
the living flame among the simple." 11 On two occasions his grief at Methodism's disavowal of its ancient identity moved him to consider leaving the Wesleyan connexion. At
Leeds, in I 797, Bramwell and Henry Taylor were involved in secret talks with Alexander
Kilham of the New Connexion at which "both spoke freely on the necessity of reform,
and seemed determined to have this effected or leave the Connexion." 12 At Leeds, again,
at the beginning of 1802, Bramwell did leave the Wesleyan Connexion for a short period
with a view to forming his own revival movement because of his dissatisfaction with his
superintendent minister's action in stopping the noisy prayer-meetings being held at the
newly opened Albion Street chapel, and with the decision to divide the circuit." On both
occasions he was persuaded by his brethren to reconsider his decision.
This vacillating behavior brought Bramwell a scathing rebuke from Lorenzo Dow, the
American revivalist. "It appears to me that Wm. B. ought to have launched out as a champion for God, but unbelief to trust God with his family, &c. caused him apparently to
shrink.. It appears that he saw the formality and danger into which the English
Connexion were exposed, and sinking: he came out for a space, and God began to open
his way, but through unbelief, the reasoning of Satan, and the solicitation of his brethren,
he was prevailed upon to shrink, recant in part and return: in consequence of which,
some pious ones, who requested Christian liberty to pray with mourners, &c. and united
William Bramwell: The Last of the Ancient Methodists
6I
with him to dissent, were left in a dilemma here.""
Bramwell' s peers have given us a more balanced appreciation of him. His official conference obituary reads:
WILLIAM BRAMWELL who was a man of eminent piety, of considerable preaching talents, and of great resolution and industry. In humility, in self-denial, and a
readiness to take up his cross daily-in ardent love to God, compassion for perishing
sinners, and in holy zeal for the prosperity of Zion, he shone with distinguished lustre. He most cordially believed the Methodist doctrines, and set them forth in the
most prominent manner. He was an excellent disciplinarian, ever aiming to pro-
mote the spiritual improvement of those among whom he laboured, both by precept and by example. If, at any time, there appeared an instability of conduct in his
attachment to the Methodist body, it ought to be attributed rather to error of judgment, and the undue influence of individuals who endeavored to warp his affection, than to want of cordial attachment. As he advanced in years he grew in grace.
His communion with God was constant, and as he approached towards the eternal
world, he evidently ripened for the heavenly gamer. His conversation was truly spiritual, especially towards the close of his life; and he often expressed an earnest
'desire to depart and be with Christ.' He was a man of much prayer and strong
faith-a burning and shining light-and lived in a blessed readiness for that sudden
death, which removed him from earth to the unfading glories of heaven. This has
comforted his bereaved friends, and enabled them to mingle sentiments of joy for
his gain, with feelings of sorrow for their own loss."
William Bramwell was born at Elswich, Lancashire, 1759. His parents were devout
Anglicans and he was devoutly religious from childhood. As an adolescent he sought to
relieve a troubled conscience by a series of austerities involving kneeling for hours on his
bare knees on a sanded floor while he confessed his sins and repeated his prayers; meditating in the solitude of woods; and fasting and taking lonely walks throughout the night.
Apprenticed to a currier at Preston, and while attending the sacrament in the parish
church at Preston, he received some insight into the nature of saving faith. He was led by
a Methodist to attend a cottage meeting addressed by Christopher Hopper. At the second
meeting he joined the Society. He finally attained the assurance of the forgiveness of his
sins at a service conducted by John Wesley who recognized his spiritual state of mind.
"Dear brother, can you praise God?," Wesley asked him. "No sir." 'Well, perhaps you can
tonight," rejoined Wesley, lifting up his hands and smiling upon the doubting youth.
Bramwell became an active Methodist to the displeasure of his parents who threatened to
disown him. He conducted the 5 a.m. prayer meeting, became a class leader and local
preacher. Thanks to his efforts, and those of four other dedicated young men revival took
place, the membership doubled, a large preaching house built, and the prejudice against
the Methodists removed."
Bramwell became a traveling preacher in 1785." He was a model Methodist preacher.
He accepted Wesley's teaching that it was his duty to preach the gospel in order to save
souls, and to consolidate the conversions he achieved by observing the system of
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Methodist Discipline as drawn up by Wesley. His mornings were spent in his study. He
was a self-educated man well versed in the biblical languages, and in French. His afternoons were spent in visiting from house to house: 'These visits were short and spiritual. If
possible he would have the whole family collected, and having ascertained their several
religious states he would pray for each by name."" The theme of his preaching was entire
sanctification; "He preached a present and full salvation through faith in the Redeemer's
blood ... on the entire destruction of sin and the complete renewal of the heart in holiness .... This was his constant, his favourite theme." It was Bramwell'::, conviction that
"evangelising success varied directly with fidelity to the preaching of sanctification." In this
conviction he was of one mind with John Wesley who wrote of the growth of
Methodism at Launceston: "Here I found the plain reason why the work of God has
gained no ground in this Circuit all the year. The preachers have given up the Methodist
testimony. Either they did not speak of perfection at all (the peculiar doctrine committed
to our trust), or they spoke of it only in general terms, without urging the believers to 'go
on unto petfection' and to expect
it every moment And wherever this is not earnestly
done, the work of God does not prosper."" As a result the normal round of Methodist
meetings became occasions for conversions: "Sometimes in a single Love-feast a score of
souls were renewed ... at a single band or prayer-meeting as many as seven or eight
were saved."
This kind of growth through the steady exercise of a normal ministry was the general
aim of most Methodist Preachers based on the Conference Minutes for 1768 where
Wesley proposed promoting revivals through "a diffusion of Methodist literature, field and
morning preaching, the enforcement of Methodist Discipline, good singing, quarterly fasts,
the preaching of the doctrine of Christian Petfection, house-to-house visitation, attention
to the young, continued union with the Established Church, and, above all and more
than all, more inward an outward holines1 among the preachers .. .. "20 Where Bramwell
departed from the norm was in his u1e of importunate prayer to deliberately "work up" a
revival. His aim on entering a circuit was to create a sense of excited expectation for
revival. He began by praying each day before breakfa1t-at four in the morning in 1ummer, and at five in winter. This regular habit of prayer was supplemented by colo11al exertions in prayer in circuits where he felt that the spiritual vitality of the people to be at a
particularly low ebb. At Leeds he prayed for houri at an end in the wood1-and he
prayed very loudly' He also used female prayer-leaders-most notably Mary Barit and
Ann Cutler. Of Mary Barit' s work at Leed1 between 1795-1 797 he said: "I never knew
one man so blessed as this young woman in the salvation of souls." 21 He attributed the
eventual outbreak of the Great York1hire Revival in the winter of 1792 and the 1pring of
1793 to the work of Ann Cutler (one of hi1 converts from his day1 a1 a local preacher at
Preston) who "joined u1 in continual prayer to God for the revival of His work. Several,
who were the most prejudiced, were suddenly struck, and in agonies groaned for deliverance. The work continued in almost eveiy meeting, and sixty persons in and about
Dewsbury received 1anctification, and walked in that liberty. Our love-feasts began to be
crowded, and people from all the neighbouring circuit5 visited us. Great numbers found
pardon, and some perfect love. The work in a few weeks broke out at Greetland. Ann
Cutler went over to Birstal and was there equally blessed in her labours. She went into
William Bramwell. The Last of the Andent Methodists
63
the Leeds circuit: and, though vital religion had been very low, the Lord made use of her
at the beginning of a revival, and the work spread nearly through the circuit.. .. She and a
few more were equally blessed in some parts of the Bradford and Otley circuits.
Wherever she went there was an amazing power of God attending her prayers." 22
Bramwell was conscious of the opposition within Methodism towards the noise, disorder, spurious conversions, and loss of converts associated with revivalism and drew up
some "Regulations for the conduct of Revival Prayer-Meetings to prevent spurious noise
and disorder and unnecessary loss of converts." He recommended that:
two or three people saying short prayers in succession should open the prayermeeting. A person in distress should be approached and spoken to in a low voice
by only one other person;
any "praying company" gathered round a "mourner" should pray in succession, and
as quietly as possible. While this was going on a "proper person" should continue to
lead the meeting, and keep the rest engaged in general prayers and hymn singing
until one of the "mourners" was "set at liberty" when all those present would join in
acknowledging their "deliverance";
a person should be appointed to make a note of the names and addresses of the
people professing conversion so that they could be contacted later with a view to
join a class, and to being introduced into the life of the society;
great care should be taken in selecting only people of the highest character to lead
prayer-meetings; and that care be taken not to depend too much on any particular
persons by expecting them to take the most active or useful part therein, lest our
dependence be more in man than in God." 23
There was another sense in which Bramwell was the last ancient Methodist. In
Bramwell's person and ministry the charismatic character of john Wesley's ministry at
Bristol in 1739 was revived. Dreams and visions played their part in his revivals. At
Bingley (in the Birstal Circuit) in 1793, the trances of the ill-fated young girl, Elizabeth
Dickinson, "drew thousands to prayer-meetings." At Nottingham the situation was nicely
primed for Bramwell's arrival in 1798 by Thomas Tatham, one of the leaders, who interrupted a Sunday morning service to inform those present that he had been given a divine
vision promising a welcome and the forgiveness of sins to the vilest sinner." Bramwell,
himself was credited with extraordinary powers in the best charismatic traditions. He
could read the inmost depths of the human heart. Once he looked earnestly at a woman
who had been a member of the Methodist Society for many years and told her she was a
hypocrite, and that if she didn't repent and become converted hell would be her everlasting portion' The woman was duly convicted of her guilt, and later that day experienced
the conversion Bramwell had told her to obtain. 25 Bramwell had the supernatural gift of
foreknowledge. On one occasion he warned a woman not to embark upon a voyage to
North America. She took heed of his warning, and the boat was duly lost at sea with the
loss of all its crew and passengers. He could heal people. At Thorngumbald on the Hull
Circuit in 1805 the recovery of a young girl from severe whooping cough was dated
from the day he prayed for her restoration to health."
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Bramwell was an imposing figure of a man. "In appearance he was nearly six feet high,
and robust; his features were large, strong, and dark, like those of a bronze statue, and his
eye piercing as an eagle's."Z7
His effect upon those who attended his services was
described by Alexander Bell, one of his converts. "The gravity of his appearance in the
pulpit, his impressive mode of giving out the hymns, his powerful and pleading spirit in
prayer when he seemed to commune with his Maker at the mercy-seat, and then the
bold, impassioned, and energetic manner of his preaching, not only rivitted my attention
to his subject, but awakened in my heart such emotions as led me there and then to give
myself to God and His people.""
Bramwell, however, was the victim of historical process. Just as the early church
"changed from a charismatic movement to a practicable and institutionally consolidated
way of life"''' so did Methodism. The "Higher Powers" of Methodism had ambitions to
make Methodism into a church, and the revivals sponsored by Bramwell with their indeundisciplined ways were an unruly, disruptive threat to that ambition that had to
be disciplined and brought to heel. The ideal was renewal conceived as steady, consolidated growth in genuine members and piety. The concept of Methodist ministry and growth
for the nineteenth century was clearly expressed by George Smith in his "History of
Wesleyan Methodism" when he said of the revivals that attended the ministry of Gideon
Ouseley and others between 1805 and 1809: "Undue importance should not be
attached to those special manifestations of grace usually called "revivals"-when great
numbers of persons are awakened and brought unto God in a comparatively short timeas a means of Methodist progress and increase. The ordinary operation of the Spirit, blessing the word, and leading the hearers to turn from their sins to the Lord, has ever been
the means of rearing up and maintaining Methodist Societies. The pious labours of godly
ministers, whose word descends as the dew, and under the fructifying influence of the
Holy Ghost produces 'the fruits of good living to the praise and glory of God,' has been
the normal state of Methodism in all stages of its progress; and the continued existence of
this gracious power must ever be the means of prosperity to the Connexion."'0
The key figure in this development of Methodism was Jabez Bunting. It is significant
that John Kent, who did not see fit to mention William Bramwell, calls Jabez Bunting "the
last Wesleyan" in the sense that Bunting understood better than anyone else what Wesley
intended for Wesleyan Methodism when he transferred his authority to a Conference
composed exclusively of senior traveling preachers. 31 Bunting's Wesleyanism was destined
to be superseded as his Wesleyanism superseded that of William Bramwell. The revivalism of Bramwell, however, was to flourish outside the pail of Wesleyanism. The Primitive
Methodists regarded themselves as returning to the primitive simplicity of Bramwelln The
Holiness revival of the nineteenth century and the charismatic revival of this century are
significant developments of Bramwell's kind of revivalism. And in the history of revivalism
Bramwell occupies a significant, innovative place. Charles Finney is credited with the idea
of "working up" or "inducing" a revival, but the conditions which he identified as neces-
sary for working up a revival were those which characterized the revivals of Bramwell
form 1791 onwards. 11 Bramwell therefore was not only the last of the ancient Methodists
but also one of the first founding fathers of the Charismatics.
William Bramwell: The Last of the Andent Methodists
65
NOTES
I. Samuel Coley, The Life of the Rev. Thomas Collins (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Book
Room, nd. 1865?), p. 355.
2. Ibid., p. 38.
3. Michael R Watts, The Dissenters, vol 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), p. 139, n. 524.
4. W.R. Ward, Religion and Society in England 1790-1850 <New York: Schocken Books, 1973),
p. 81.
5. Kent <1785-1787) 450; Dewsbury (1791-17931 100-200; Birstal (1793-1795) 600;
Sheffield 11795-1798) 1250; Nottingham <1798-1801) 1400; Hull 11804-1806) 450; Sunderland
(J 806-1808) 1000 and Birstal (J 812-1814) 500. Figures from Thomas Harris, A Memoir of the Rev.
William Bramwell <London: Wesleyan-Methodist Book Room, nd. 1870?).
6. John Telford, ed., Letterrnf/ohn Wesley, vol. 8 !London: Epwotth Press, 193 i l, p. 169.
7. Ibid., p. 168.
8. Henry Catter, The Methodist Heritage (London: Epwotth Press, 1951 l, p. 193.
9. For a discussion of the issues involved see John C. Bowmer, Pastor and People <London:
Epwotth Press, 1975), pp. 19-67.
10. CW. Andrews, William Bramwell: Revivalist (London: R. Culley, 1909), pp. 27-28.
11. Watts, The Dissenter>, p. 139.
12. Sam Hulme, ed., The Jubilee of the Methodist New Connexion (London: John Blackwell, 1848),
pp. 104-105
13. D. Colin, Oxford Place Methodist Centre 1835-1985 !Leeds, England: Oxford Place
methodist Centre, 1985), p. 5. See also Watts, p. 138.
14. Lorenzo Dow, The Dealings of Cod, Man, and The Devil as Exemplified in the Life, Experience
and T
of Lorenzo Dow in a Period of More Than a Half Century <New York: Laport, Blakeman &
Law, 1853), p. 214.
15. Methodist Magazine 1819, p. 392.
16. Abel Stevens, History of Methodism, 2:243-244 and W. Pilkington, Flashes of Preston
Methodistn11916l,pp.15-27.
17. Bramwell traveled on the following circuits: Kent 11786), Lynn ( 17871, Blackbum 11788),
Colne I 1789), Dewsbury I 1791 I, Birstal ( 1793), Sheffield I 1795), Nottingham I 1798), Leeds
<1801), Wetherby 11803), Hull <18041, Sunderland <18061, Liverpool <18081, Sheffield <1810>,
Birstal <I 812), London West I 1814), Newcastle <1815), Manchester <1817-18181 IKB. Garlick, Mr.
Wesley's Preacher,; 1739-1818 (London: Pinhoms for the World Methodist Society, 1977), pp. 1112.l
18. James Sigston, Memoir of the Venerable Bramwell <New York: Phillips & Hunt, 1860!, p. I 05.
19. Thomas Jackson, ed., Works ofJohn Wesley, vol. IV (London: John Mason, 18651, p. 78.
20. Luke Tyerrnan, Life of Wesley, vol. HI <London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1872-75), pp. 2223.
2 t. Deborah M Valenze, Prophetic Sons and Daughters (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1985), p. 57.
22. Stevens, History of Methodism, p. 86; Zechariah Taft, Biographical Sketches of the Lives of
Various Holy Women, vol. I (London: Printed by Author, sold by Mr. Kershaw, 1825-18281, pp.
313-331.
23. Methodist Magazine 1798, pp. 243-244. The regulations were part of an article entitled,
'Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in the Prayer-Meetings" by "A Well Wisher to Zion." Since
they are similar to less detailed regulations given in C. W. Andrews' memoir of Bramwell it would
appear that Bramwell (rather than someone like Alexander Mather) was the author.
24. Julia S. Werner, The Primitive Methodist Connexion, Its Background and Early History !Madison,
WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984), pp. 40-42.
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Goodwin
25. Sigston, Memoirs of Bramwell, pp. 40-41.
26. Ibid., p. 144.
27. Stevens, History of
p. 245.
28. Harris, Life of William Bramwell p. 16 7.
29. Gerci Theissen, Social Reality and the Early Christians (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), p.
257.
30. George Smith, The
of Wesleyan Methodism, vol. II !London' Longman, 1859), p. 18,
422.
31. john Kent, The Age of
!London' Epworth Press, 1966), xii (The title of his W.H.S.
lecture for 1955) and see pages 125-126 for a summaiy of what Kent means by the title.
32. See Werner, The Primitive Methodist Connexion, pp. 17 4 and 199, n. 36.
33. Ibid., p. 49.